The Language of Flowers
Cast: Cure Rosetta, Yotsuba Alice - age 14
Sebastian Cloverfield - age 65
Cure Flower, Hanasaki Kaoruko - age 70
March, 2013
"It is nothing significant, but please accept this."
Alice curtsies and lowers her gaze as Sebastian presents the old woman with a potted flower. Alice downplays its value as a proper young lady should, but in actual fact it is a rare specimen worth tens of thousands of yen. The proper and polite responses are made, at the end of which Cure Flower accepts the gift.
"Now, I expect you have questions about Pretty Cure," a statement, not a question.
Alice does not look up. "Yes, ma'am."
"Did you think that hidden cameras and young folks in dark sunglasses were good means to find answers?"
"Because I was inexperienced and thoughtless, I relied on methods that have worked for me in the past. I recognize now that they were inappropriate."
"Good. Now stand up. It will be too hard to have a real conversation if you stay that stiff the whole time."
Cure Flower leads Alice through her greenhouse, pointing out several flowers and identifying the meaning each holds in ikebana, the language of flowers. Then she asks: "Do you understand why I'm telling you all of this?"
"I have been taught a bit of flower language, but the vocabulary is much richer than I had realized. Do you mean that I should investigate more carefully?"
"No," Cure Flower shakes her head. "I meant to show you that you can learn a great deal just by talking to people and listening to what they say. You could try meeting with the other Pretty Cures and hearing what they think about it. You don't need to take Fusion Group or that strange woman at their word, but you don't need to spy on anybody either."
"You did that, didn't you? What did you learn?"
The old woman smiles mysteriously. "You are a resourceful young woman. That is exactly the sort of thing that you should find out for yourself."